Tried With Fire

This is an updated version of a post I wrote over three years ago about Christian "experts" who are very free in dispensing their advice to the rest of us. If anything, the number of influencers has only grown thanks to the Internet. Not all are bad, and some are quite helpful. But just because there is an influencer out there does not obligate me to listen or agree.  In  Pride and Prejudice , Jane Austen has created a character who is both irritating and amusing - Lady Catherine de Bourgh. She is the epitome of the bossy and nosy neighbor, and her rank and wealth give her the right to be so. As the owner of a large estate, anyone who is economically dependent on her patronage needs to stay in her good graces because she holds the pursestrings. Yet, Austen's dry wit makes it plain to the reader that Lady Catherine's omniscience exists only in her own mind. Here are a few examples of how she advises those who have the misfortune of not being as enlightened a...

I listened to How to Think by Alan Jacobs again. If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it. If you have read it, it's worth rereading because we're still learning how to think well. At the very end, Jacobs gives the reader  The Thinking Person's Checklist, which includes this: "5. If you do have to respond to what everyone else is responding to in order to signal your virtue and right-mindedness, or else lose your status in your community, then you should realize that it's not a community but rather an Inner Ring." The Inner Ring Jacobs is referring to is described in an address by C.S. Lewis in which he warns his hearers of the pull of the Inner Ring, the inner circle, the people in-the-know and the ones who really matter.  It may not be the visible authorities, but it is the power behind the throne, as it were. The main draw is the desire to belong to this select group, and its seductive power may cause us to do unethical things to gain and ...